But now, September had come, and the winds of change had shifted in my favor. These winds brought rain, plentiful rain (by Colorado standards), that soaked the earth and made me officially declare the model rocket season open once again.

Throughout the summer, a few rocketry ideas had been scurrying about in my mind, as they have been for at least five years. I would definitely need to launch Lone Star, my rocket funded by the Triumvirite, Patrons of Engineering. Alpha-FS, a booster-stage rocket, and its sustainer, Space Racer II would definitely need to fly too. Since I had recently gotten especially interested in photography, it was a pure necessity to fly Astrocam 110, which takes 110 format photographs from the air. Also, my family had bought a new, digital camcorder, which we would use to record the entire event.

After a little thinking and planning, I decided that an excellent date would be September 22, 2002, a Sunday. From the beginning, my dad was sold on the idea, so I conscripted him to be cinematographer (an inaccurate term, I admit, but videographer is audibly displeasing). I was also able to convince my mother to attend. My newlywed brother and sister-in-law, however, had spent the entire night at a "phest" (somewhat like a fest, sans the coding), and they got very mad at me when I asked if they wanted to attend.

Once we got out to the field and set up, I declared the first launch to be Alpha-FS/Space Racer II, with a B6-0 and B6-7 engine. At first, the engine wouldn't light (such is often the problem), but I fixed the problem (in the igniter). Alpha-FS/Space Racer II whooshed aloft with incredible speed. Staging occurred without any problem, and Space Racer II soared to higher altitude. Since I didn't have any capable person on hand, I wasn't able to get an altitude reading. The upper stage flew incredibly high, and it took forever to return to Earth. When it did, it landed in a front yard to the north of the launch range.

The next flight of the day was the gigantic Lone Star. For this flight, I attached on top a specially-prepared egg capsule (built from a plastic Easter egg). This would serve two purposes: first, my benefactors wanted a payload for the next flight, and this would work excellently for testing the payload-lofting capabilities of Lone Star. Second, an old family friend, Uncle Dick (actually Dick Balkins, of no real relation to us) had offered to give me $5 if I successfully flew a raw hens egg, unbroken, on a rocket of my own design. I received my reward nearly two years later.

The flight was beautiful, flawless. I saw the rocket separate into two parts, each coming down on its own separate parachute. The egg capsule and the booster landed in the woods near the park. This was the first (and hopefully the last) time that a rocket of mine landed in those woods. While they're fun for exploring, it would be very easy to lose a rocket in the great mass of trees and bushes. (We used these woods as the location for the unnamed green-skyed planet in the Galvin sector where Captain Logan is imprisoned in The Worst Sci-Fi Trilogy Conclusion Ever!.)

The last flight of the day was of Astrocam 110. It flew on a C6-3 engine. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a suitable picture from that flight. I nearly caught the rocket before it hit the ground, but I just barely missed.

And that is the story of the first launch in the WAEC flying season of 2002-2003. Let the saga continue...

WAEC Launch Footage: September 22, 2002
the launch - 30,237 kb